Next To Me
by Miss Meggie
Summary: White House/Secret Service AU: Secret Service Agent Grant Ward tired of guarding the impulsive and trouble making first daughter Skye Coulson takes a lesser detail in protecting the UK Ambassadors daughter Jemma Simmons. Thanks to their chemistry it might be more trouble than it's worth...
1. Chapter 1

Grant had joined the Secret Service after a stint in the FBI and before that the army. He'd spent his in the service of others trying to out run his family name. Just because his family had money and would sell his grandmother down the river to sit in the oval office doesn't mean he would.

He takes perverse pleasure in the way they react to him being close to goal and not wanting it according to his Congressman daddy he's nothing more than a trained monkey.

He loves his job but protecting the First Daughter Skye Coulson is trying on any easy day. The harder days he wants to take a bullet. He'd get injury leave.

-/-/-

He stood somewhat nervously before the director of the Secret Service. "Director Fury sir, I need a break from her. I swear to God if I have to stop her from smoking in Lincoln monument or stop another equality right for her internet buddies I will strangle her." He said tensely with a head shake.

"The Lincoln Monument?" Fury's brows rise.

He said with chagrin. "Ashed her cigarette on old Abe's shoe."

"You really want a break Ward?" Fury clarified.

"Yes, I'll take any other detail… really."

"Jemma Simmons is here teaching a term at Georgetown in Biomechanics or something. I could leave you to protect Ambassador Simmons daughter. She's a boring good girl."

He slides her dossier across the table. "I know who she is sir." He picks up the thick file perusing it.

"Then this particular detail meets with your approval then Agent Ward? The only reason you've been given such leeway is Mr. President likes you. I'd not waste it." Fury advised darkly. "Dismissed Agent."

-/-

He's sits at his kitchenette table and goes over Jemma's file. A cup of Irish coffee in hand he memorizes her routine along with the pedestrian and automobile traffic of every coffee shop, grocery store, and doctor's office she visits. He maps out exit strategies for all of them as well. He plans out an exit strategy or failsafe for any and all of her lab classes just in case.

He moves on to her personal data. Favorite foods, allergies, fears, along with her strengths and weakness. He knows the faces of every single person she knows and loves by the end of the night. His eyes are crossing with exhaustion by the time he lets himself just look at her.

She was really very beautiful in an unassuming way. Even if she did wear too many goddamn ponytails by his estimation. He'd met her briefly while she'd been out clubbing with Skye Coulson. When he was protecting Skye he'd allowed himself to fantasize about Jemma but only in the abstract I will never get close enough to act on anything sort of way. It was very dirty fantasy he had revisited more than once.

This detail was going to be torture. Anything was better than Skye's antics by far.

It'd be a miracle if he kept his hands to himself.

-/-/-

The next morning he shows up as is customary to relieve the night rotation. He is standing statue still to the left of the door when she opens it to retrieve the Monday morning paper. "Oh you're quite new…I thought you belonged to Skye…I mean on her detail. "She said glancing up him with a bright smile. Her sleep tumbled hair falling flatteringly in her face.

"We switched things up." He answered trying heartily to not stare at the skin exposed by her tank top. He'd never found a woman's clavicles enticing before. He was so fucking screwed. Shit he was staring. What was she saying? He drags his eyes up to her face with some effort and tons of regret.

She's blushing at him prettily as she continues on. She'd caught his stare. Some tiny part of him likes the fact that just looking at the woman makes her blush. "I'm quite the low maintenance protectee or so Bobbi and Lance tell me. They're my MI 6 detail anyway it will be lovely to work with you Agent Ward."

"Likewise I'm sure Miss Simmons." He thinks of something he needs to know. "What's your Encoded Handle? It wasn't in the file."

"Oh it wouldn't be President Coulson likes to use famous heroines for our codes. None fit my intellect. I prefer birds. So, I'm The Starling."

She leaves the house promptly at seven AM and he drives her to the class she's to teach.

If gaze falls on her every time he does his cursory check of the lecture hall he tells himself it's because it's his job. The fact that he enjoys watching her is just a bonus. She moves quite gracefully as she stretches up to write things on the black boards or if she's staring down into her microscope as she is explaining the biometric structure of the…whatever the fuck she just said's cell. It's all oddly graceful.

He stays there at the top of the stadium style seating of the lecture hall. He takes in the sight of her now with more focus just because he can. This staring thing is quickly becoming an addiction.

When her last class files out she tears down her pony tail and rolls her neck. "You can come down from the nose bleeds you know?" She said hands laced on the back of her neck as she looked up at him. "It's likely most difficult to protect me from there. Unlike Miss Coulson I don't bite even if you ask nicely. She quips as he strolls down to her trying to project a relaxed state.

"Ain't that a shame." He muttered to himself.

"Come again?" She asked distractedly as she wrote something down on her desk calendar.

"I said you're an engaging teacher you must like your work."

She sighed and cracked her neck while looking up at him. "It fills the void. My partner is working for Stark industries until my father's tenure in the US is through, this just keeps my hands busy."

"Still you're good." He compliments watching her get to her feet.

"I can't send stupid people out into the world. It's bad for it." She gathered her things.

"I think I heard that on a TV show once."

"Friday Night Lights. Nice catch…I'm a Tami Taylor fan. American football is totally bollocks but the ensuing drama is rather enthralling." She gives him a happy grin that sets his pulse to a faster pace.

"So no football? Soccer? Wait I know you like polo." He flirts a little he can't help himself.

Her face screws up as she stepped around the desk to stand at his side. "Ugh you've never beaten Prince Harry at his own game. It soured me on the whole deal."

"You beat a prince? "He said shocked as he fought back a laugh.

"Fair and square it's simple math really. Speed of the horse, force of the mallet hitting the ball… velocity of the ball and location of the other players. Math and a little planning and it's a simpleton's game."

"Is there any game you can't think your way into winning?" He asked as they head for the door.

"Bingo Maybe…. It's mostly chance though given a card and the number of balls in play I could work up the statistical likelihood of a win in a few minutes." She answered tilting her chin up a little proudly.

He laughs. "I should take you to Vegas." He opens the door and checks the hall that id now emptying moderately.

"Card counting is illegal and quite difficult Fitz and I tried it once… we didn't exactly fail but we still got caught. I'm a wretched liar and even worse fake drunkard."

He replied as the waited for it to clear so he'd have better sight lines. "So you called in a favor or two?"

"Oh no, we told the casino how to better their failing games. They much preferred that than having to arrest a dignitary's sixteen year old daughter." He grins. Damn it, He's really going to like her.

He walks abreast to her as they head for the faculty parking lot. He's sure Bobbi is behind them but as she rattles on happily about this and that he doesn't really care… he cursory sweeps the parking lot before picking up conversation with her. "I truly have no clue what a nucleotide is…"

"I could teach you but unless it's your passion it's not that interesting." She's biting her bottom lip and his insides shouldn't feel like jelly with the inciting action but they do.

Grant could use a new passion. Why does the one he wants have to be so clearly marked in bold off limits to him.

-/-/-/-

Phil Coulson chastises his daughter from behind the "Kennedy Desk." "Did you have to annoy Ward so much Skye? He's good! That's why he's on your detail. Or was on your detail I should say,"

She shifts on the couch in the center of the oval office. "He's a stick in the mud Dad." Skye's phone trills out her text alert. She sneakily looks at it.

Jem Jam: "Thank you for being such a prat to your secret service agent I'm very much enjoying the eye candy."

Skye: "I knew it! I knew you liked him. When you have torrid dirty sex in a public restroom I expect a courtesy details call."

Jem Jam: I'm not that big of a slag thank you!

"Skye if you don't stop texting I'm going to throw your phone in the fish tank you were so insistent on." He gestured to the fish tank banking the right side of the circular room.

"Yeah Pops, sorry I'll stop. " She shoves her locked phone under her thigh and endures her lecture on being a less exhaustive protectee.

-/-

"What're you doing?" Ward asked her having caught sight of her in the rearview.

"Sending Skye a thank you note she sent me a lovely house warming gift." She half lied and fiddled with hem of her purple jumper.

AN: I own nothing. I know zip about Polo. Obviously I do not know Prince Harry it was too good to resist though. Just don't sue me. I do not own anything FNL related either I just felt like dropping a little Tami Taylor in. If you guys like this let me know. I'm very nervous about this one.-MM


	2. Chapter 2

He'd think Skye was behind this if he hadn't kept his attraction to Jemma such a secret. Because honestly this is such a Skye Coulson thing to get him into but it's not like the girl has the power to upgrade the terror levels of Great Britain. The levels are up though which means his subject must be protected at all times. Even in the shower. His back is turned he is a gentleman after all. Jemma seems utterly unaffected by his presence humming softly as she washes. He however is about to crack.

He looks resolutely at his shoes because if he looks up he _will _look and he can't look because it'd be a violation on so many levels so his feet it is. He really needs to polish his shoes. She should hurry, he feels so stupid just standing there when he'd really like to join her and… fuck… he needs to stop thinking period. This is so incredibly asinine. She's more likely to slip on wet tile than be "Used as a pawn in terrorist plotting." But regulations are there for a reason. He hears the water shut off blessedly.

"Can you grab me a towel Agent Ward? " They sit on stand over the toilet. He snatches up a dark blue one handing it to her blindly. After a few moments she steps out and walks around him to her bedroom. He watches a droplet of water fall from her hair and glide between her shoulder blades. The urge to follow the drop with his tongue is so unexpected and strong he has to bite the inside of his cheek to ground himself.

She rambles at him from behind her closed closet door. "Ward? You're a man so you'd be a good person to gather Intel from. My father needs me to be proverbial eye candy for the Pylorian consulate at afternoon tea today with the President and Skye as well. Apparently the older fellow has a thing for younger women rather trashy if you ask me but we are trying to head off tensions so what's a little flirting for the good of mankind. The only problem is I'm not used to being Daddy's cannon fodder what does one wear to something like this? I mean honestly the only reason I'm going Bruce Banner is going to be there to talk about the world wide devastation of an attack. He's smart and can keep with me which few can. It's not vanity that's just a fact. So blue or red?" She prompted opening the door to poke her still wet head out.

"Neither go with something bright, maybe yellow? Make it so you outshine everyone in the room. Then he'll be bowled over by you. Not your body."

"You're very sweet Ward." She said with a bright smile.

-/-/-

Jemma is used to the weight of having people's eyes on her. Every glance feels different. Lance's gaze always feels brotherly. Like he'd dive on to a grenade in protection of her. He takes his job deathly serious. It feels warm like she's safe on a cold winter's day.

Bobbi's eyes always skip along her lightly. The fun older sister she tells all her secrets too. She does too, Next to Fitz and Skye Bobbi knows her every secret thought.

She and Fitz have so become a singular being she'd stopped feeling the way looks at her ages ago.

Grant Ward is a different story. Everywhere his eyes touch there's a heat left behind like a sunburn trapped within her skin it's not unpleasant though she rather likes it. At least she knows with certainty his eyes are on her. Right now she thinks he must be trailing his eyes up and down the deep vee of her back exposed by his suggested dress.

When they get to the entrance of her apartment building he steps in beside her. He places her hand in the crook of his elbow. His fingers brush over hers for all of a second. There's the wall and Grant on either side of her Maria Hill has her six. Maria's eyes always feel steadfast. She is Bobbi's sick leave replacement for the day.

"You look like bottled up sunshine Jem." Maria said kindly.

"Thank you I think. "She shoots a smile over shoulder.

-/-/-

In the car she texts Skye. "On my way Daddy so owes me!"

"Calvary is coming to save us. Apparently Mom didn't care for the men's strategy. So now you can flirt with Dr. Banner and I can pelt Ward bits of scone." Is Skye's retort followed by "Can I wear jeans to afternoon tea? You tell me English."

"It's very proper."

"Soooo. I have to be a girl. Damn." She can practically her Skye disappointed inflection.

-/-

As they're driving through the first white house security check point the Radio plays the weather report. "Expect moderate to heavy snow fall beginning around three this afternoon, the night time low is projected to be 13 degrees.

"Bloody fucking hell I loathe winter." Jemma whined.

"Noted." Ward said shortly. She wonders idly if he has a list going in his head of her likes and dislikes.

-/-/-

When Jemma goes to hang up her coat in the Blue Room where they're having tea. Tiny snowflakes fall from her coat. "Oh bollocks I'm going to leave water droplets everywhere." She worried aloud.

Skye stands at her shoulder. "Ah don't worry I painted my room red without authorization from the who's its and what's its society of who the fuck cares so they have more pressing issues."

"Melinda is going to kill you!" Jemma hissed lowly.

She' shrugged her shoulders covered in the bright pink fabric of her dress. "You only live once Jemmie! I sat you next to Banner."

"It's not even- never mind Skye." They'd been over this explaining professionalism to her free spirited best friend was a long lost cause.

The tea is served and she's nibbling on a finger sandwich when she feels eyes on her. Ward stands directly across from her with a brooding expression. She raised her eyebrows at him sending a smidge of a smile.

He doesn't return it. He remains stonily serious.

"Dr. Simmons?" Banner asked.

Both she and her father answer with an affirmative "yes. " Her father has a doctorate as well in applied sociological constraints and conflict resolution.

Bruce turned toward her. "I was speaking to the fairer Simmons sir. I was curious if using the deactivated host virus she'd chosen had delivered the desired curative results in her patients."

They weren't patients so much as rats but she was eager to answer.

"On some levels yes in conjunction with certain chemo therapies you can cure certain autoimmune diseases but it is case by case in each of the subjects. Because each of their bodies react differently to infection and treatment. I have no sustainable results to bring human trials into play but I will get there." She said confidently.

"I have no clue what you just said and I speak Jemma." Skye murmured.

Banner ignores Skye's confused statement and asks his own question. "What about highly focused gamma radiation to knock out the immune systems?"

"I thought of that but the only obstacle is I'm not comfortable doing that knowing the untested and varied depth of issues caused by gamma usage."

-/-/-

She and Skye get up and go to the bathroom. Trip and Ward follow them. "So Banner totally wants you." Skye says sitting on the toilet. "Though I don't think you're father appreciates the mind fucking over tea. He's got that "how in the hell did I create this…person face my mom gets when I'm myself in public." Skye says while peeing.

"Skye it's not even like that."

"Bitch please if your brain was wearing a skirt he'd have his proverbial hand up it." The knob turns. "Trippy I'm pissing no terrorist are in mother's private restroom. Breathe." She wipes and flushes and fixes her clothing. She steps to the sink and they switch places.

"Mentally he would be a great match much like Fitz and yet I'm not attracted to him physically I much prefer someone with superior musculature and…endurance."

"You prefer Ward." Skye said flatly as she washed her hands and Jemma urinated.

"I wonder if the weather has worsened."

"Stop deflecting Jem Jam. You wanna sex him up and have his broody little babies. Don't deny it I saw that eyebrow lifting little smile flirt thing. Oh when you sex him? You have to tell me if he scowls the whole time." She said drying her hands.

"Bugger off you slag and let me pee."

"I haven't had sex since Fitz left for New York. I'm not a slag I'm a nun." Skye retorted fixing her hair in the mirror.

"Stop talking Daisy Skye!" The Fitz talk always grossed Jemma out try as she might to be logical about it.

"You're not Daddy, don't call me that." She said waiting for Jemma to finish/

-/-/-

The tea gathering is cut short due to the rapid rate of the snow fall according to city ordinances there could possibly be a curfew to be enacted in a few hours. She makes plans with Skye bids everyone fair well and her father walks her out. He raises the hood of her coat. "Hood up Darling, I'd prefer you kept your ears from frost bite. He secures the hood.

Jemma looks irritated by the notion of being doted on by her father and it makes Grant smile.

-/-

The snow is coming down in sheets as they make it on to the congested beltway. As they're stuck in a messy snarl of traffic watching the snow coat the world around them Jemma speaks into the silence. "Do you have enough petrol to get us home? I'd rather not turn my heels into snow shoes they were a rather frivolous purchase brought about by a break up though that is neither here nor there they're designer and I like them. "

"Relax Simmons. I'm not going to let you walk home in the snow. We have sufficient gas." He turns off her shitty classical music and switched to the weather report. "With current weather conditions becoming more precarious the city officials have imposed a curfew of 7 pm." The broadcaster said.

He growls irritably. "I knew it!" he groused.

"Are you alright Agent Ward?" She asked with gentle concern. He becomes momentarily distracted by the way her accent wrapped around his name. He thinks he might like it. "I dislike being cooped up is all." He answered her in an equally soft yet unneeded tone.

-/-/-

He sweeps the living room quickly before letting her in. She tossed her coat on the couch. She set off to turn on the gas powered fire place. How he knows that he can't tell you other than Jemma looks like warm fire sort of girl. He sweeps the kitchen tracks back through the living room to hang up her coat. He sweeps through her bedroom decidedly not looking at her hastily discarded black lacy bra long forgotten in the rumpled violet bed sheets. Shit…okay… next room. Next room before he grabs her up to toss her down on the bed.

He finds her awaiting him in the hall way. "Stay behind me, not done with my sweep. You should make your bed. He snaps at her as some of his sexual frustration leaks out with no real satisfactory way to release it.

"I forget the little things." She said softly and he feels dirty. Upsetting her feels a bit sickening like kicking a kitten.

"Sorry sweetheart…situations like this make me irrationally edgy." He says in apology. She doesn't look appeased.

"Carry on." She orders primly.

Her office is insanely neat not a thing out of place. His eyes catch on the photos on her desk. The one that catches his attention most is one of her and Banner smiling into the camera. "You and Banner that I thing? I ask because if it is he will be put through the background paces."

She replied quickly. "Heavens no, I admire him sure I just require something a bit more…masculine in a partner I suppose that might make me sexist but-" the lights shut off abruptly. She gasps in shock and he instinctively draws her to him in protection. One arm loops around her waist the other frames her face.

It's truly amazing the things your sense of touch can pick up given no other distraction. He can feel the delicate line of her jaw and the silkiness of her hair beneath his fingertips. He wants to know what her lips feel like against his. She gives a shaky almost desperate sounding exhale and it draws him out of his head.

He carefully sets her away from him. "Where do you keep the flashlights Jemma?"

"I don't believe in flash lights the long lasting bulbs contain mercury and it can leak into your system if broken. I have candles! In the kitchen!" she answers trying not sound as shaken as he feels.

Somehow he's utterly positive that seeing her by candle light will only make him hornier. He really should have stayed on Skye's detail. She bothered him to the point of insanity but at least she could breathe without turning him on like a teenager.

"Stay behind me in case this isn't a power outage." He commands and they head for the kitchen.

I own nothing Pyloria is not a real country I made it up. Tell me if you liked it I'm going for a slow build here please be patient with it! Thanks so much for all the reviews, comments, follows, favorites, community adds, and kudos thus far.-MM


	3. Chapter 3

She is tucked up behind him trailing his every step. Her hand is on his shoulder close to his neck for guidance in the dark. "Bugger! I left my phone in the living room. "There's a flashlight." She whispers.

He doesn't know what it is about dark places and churches that make people whispers but still he responds as uses his own phone as a light and holds his gun aloft with the other to be doubly sure."Thought you didn't believe in mercury laden flashlights."

"I don't but that is clearly beside the point at this juncture."

He rolls his eyes and says in a normal tone. "I've got you Jemma. Trust me to do my job. Please?"

Her fingertips trail along his collarbone it's distracting. "Oh yes, of course I trust you! I never meant to imply-"

"It's fine Jem." He cuts off her rambling.

He's liking the way her hands feel on him a little too much. He really needs to find the candles before his pulse jumps underneath the pads of her delicate fingers and he gives himself away. She points to a drawer and he pulls it open with a little too much force. He thrust a squat candle at her. "Can you handle the bedroom if I light up the kitchen and try to contact HQ?"

"Surely." She said sitting the candle on the island to strike the match to light it. For a moment he lets himself enjoy the warmth of the light plays on her face. Damn she's pretty." She catches his stare and gives him a half smile. Before wordlessly gathering the lit candle and spares along with matches.

"Just a shout away." He reminds her.

"Certainly though I am up to date on current guarding procedures." And she takes off leaving him to her cheery yellow kitchen.

As he illuminates the kitchen he can hear her humming and knocking around in the bedroom. When she returns to him his eyes are automatically drawn to her in a Cambridge University hoodie with the hood cut off leaving her right shoulder exposed. She wears tight black leggings with pink and red cabbage roses splashed on them. Her feet are bare toes painted neon purple and newly shortened hair curling about her shoulders.

"Grant…" She said and he knocks himself from his daydream.

"Yes Ma'am." He snapped to attention.

"I asked did you manage to ring HQ?"

"No. The hardline is down and I barely have service at all." He reported slipping his phone into the pocket of his slacks.

"I have a usually obsolete battery powered radio. Maybe we could catch the forecast." She said trying to be helpful.

-/-/-

He fiddles with the lost cause of a radio.

"You can sit. We seem rather stuck tonight you might as well make yourself at home." She said looking up at him from an arm chair by the fire place. She's biting her bottom lip with her front teeth as she awaits his answer.

"You don't snore do you? I can't abide noisy sleepers?" she asked. "I mean I might have to put you out with the rubbish if it's the case…if you do? I'd recommend lying. It'd be shameful to have your six pack frost bitten."

Is she flirting with him? He laughed. "Who says I have a six pack?" He asked sting down on the couch opposite her. Having already removed his suit jacket he loses the tie while halfway watching her.

"Good genetics, your body frame and Skye though she gave an exaggeration…"

"Oh, I'm moderately afraid to ask."

"As you should be. Skye may very well be the best person I know Fitz aside but Skye is a raving loony."

He laughs because it's more truth than joke Skye is certifiable.

-/-

They fall into the most comfortable silences he's found in ages. She sighs and he remembers his grandmother telling him once it was sin to break perfect silence.

She rolls her shoulders and continues to grade papers. He lets his eyes roam over her. The line of her shoulders, the length of her neck. The way her mouth moves as she reads answers and the way she taps her pen on her up drawn leg occasionally. She glances up then back down. He's sure she can feel his eyes but he doesn't really care. He just hopes he's not creeping her out.

Because he likes her, really likes her and not just because she is easier to take care of than Skye.

He thinks back to the first time he saw her dim raucous club. Half drunkenly dancing with Skye grinding up on her. Jemma hadn't seemed to mind. She spun and swayed all to herself occasionally pulling Skye into her for a hug.

Green dress sparkiling in the strobe light as her hair flew around her flushed face. She seemed so free it took his breath away. He finds himself wondering if he could draw that Jemma back out. If he even should. Right now she's so proper and stern.

"What happened to wild Jemma Simmons?" he stupidly finds himself asking.

She looks up at him scowling. "Pardon?"

He leaned forward setting his elbows on his knees. "The crazy girl I carried home because she took her shoes off on Congress Street and refused to put them back on."

"She grew up." She allowed returning to her papers.

"Pity. She lit the place up." He said to her bowed head.

"Yes well, Daddy wants to be Prime Minister. I must behave accordingly."

"See, I've always had a problem with people who hang their life goals on their children." Her eyes snap back up on to his face.

She scowls. "That's not-Then why do what you do? I mean you basically wrangle spoiled brats of people who barely know their children thanks to the way their ambitions fall."

He leaned back into the couch before answering. He's smiles at her very straight posture even while lounging around she's a proper lady. "My Dad is a congressman, my brother is a senator, and my grandfather was a multi term governor. I would rather die than run the world, this is my way to thumb my nose at them and have fun doing it. Besides, this president and the wife too they love their kid, she's wild because they let her be who she is. I admire Coulson."

"So do I. Melinda she's stern…I… anyway I agree."

"You what?" he pushed.

She shrugged. "Just a touch of envy is all."

"Ah, that's right your mother…" He suddenly felt like the world's biggest idiot.

"Is gone…care for a subject change?"

"Definitely."

"Care to explain how all fifty of my students got the exact same question wrong? I taught them they know this!" She holds up the paper pointing to the question.

"All cheated off the same idiot in a previous class?"

She laughed. "Cheater or Studier Agent Ward?"

"Studier. I always want to know more than my peers. It's what makes me good. Have you ever cheated?"

She put the pen down a rested her chin in her hand finally slouching a bit. "Freshman Year off Fitz in geography. There was always a disconnect for me. I'm not good with direction or odd terrain. I always lose my car in the car park."

"We'll work on that, it is after all a precursor for dementia."

She rolled her eyes. "You sound like Fitz."

"The second most annoying bane of my existence."

"Be nice, I love him. Oh bloody hell not like that!" She sighed. "Why does everyone always assume?"

"Because they know you'd be an easy woman to love and they can't imagine why he doesn't." He said in perfect honesty.

She blushed and he decided he liked it. The next time he makes her do that she'll be naked. He's made up his mind. "How'd you meet Skye?" he asked. Skye was safe less sexually tense ground.

"Boarding school the one she almost got me kicked out of in Paris." She laughed. "I'd never made friends with someone my Dad hadn't paid at that point. I was raised by nannies and a governess. Aristocratic kids are smug. I was smart and solitary by nature which didn't help, Anyway I missed my valet, my governess and Skye she was like sunshine and I latched on." She answered smiling fondly at the memory.

"Wait is you titled?"

"Lady Jemma. It's in my file."

"Missed it." He said. He doesn't mention it is because he'd been mesmerized by her photo alone.

"What was it like for you growing up a Ward?"

"A different kind of lonely." He said quietly looking off for a moment

"I'm sorry. Being lonesome is something I'd never wish on anyone." She said in commiseration.

He gave a half shrug. "It made me self-reliant, a good solider."

"I'm sorry I pushed."

He shook his head. "Don't be. I need someone who pushes me to talk, relate, maybe I'll tell you the whole truth someday soon."

"Do you have any secret talents?"

"You'll tell Skye."

"I will not. "She said defensively giving him a little pout that cajoled a truthful answer out of him.

"I can play guitar. Not well but passably. It makes war zone down time pass faster."

"How many tours?"

"Four. Iraq and Afghanistan two tours each for twenty four consecutive months. Every tour extended and the down time shortened. I eventually forgot how much of the world isn't covered in sand."

"Sounds bloody dreary." She says in perfect honesty. It makes him smile if only because she's one of the only people he knows who hasn't tried to sugar coat what serving in the armed forces can be like. It is dreary when you see Iraqi children being victims to war, weather it's being made a pawn or having their innocence stolen. It wasn't always that way, but then again it's hard to find a good day in war zone.

"You're direct Jemma. I like direct women."

She got up to walk to the kitchen. "Men say they like direct women but most when actually faced with assertiveness don't actually fancy it that much.

He catches her wrist gently before she can escape him, "I don't lie Jemma if I say I like you? It's exactly what I mean."

"It's good to know honesty still lives even a little. Are you hungry I'm famished I feel as if it's a duty to eat the Ice-cream before it melts. I just bought a new pint."

He got happily to his feet he really was hungry. "You a Hagen Daas or Ben &amp; Jerry's girl."

"Ben and Jerry's you?"

"Chunky Monkey. Everytime."

She looked over her shoulder at him as she led the way. "Umm mmm Banana Pudding is the best one."

-/-/-/-

"Why the Secret Service?" she asked over her half eaten bowl of ice cream.

"Why not had to do something after the army. Special Forces gave me the credentials I needed for it, I wasn't really set in one field FBI wise I mean I liked the language and decryption thing but with the internet there's less and less need for covert communication. I tried profiling for a while but…it wasn't for me. I know the world is evil; I didn't need the daily reminder. "

She hummed in acknowledgement. "I could have been a CSI but I didn't have the stomach for murder either. I'd much rather cure cancer."

"I think you'll do it too. I got a sense of your determination watching you teach. That thing you and Banner were talking about that your new project?"

"Yes before I took the teaching job I was trying to kill Autoimmune Diseases by using a deactivated virus the body already recognizes to deliver the treatment. So that the body won't attack itself or the virus. Because it's already dead. What do you do when you aren't staring me down from a safe distance?"

He drums his fingers a little nervously on the table. "I renovate properties. Take an old house no one wants and make it some place I'd like to live. When I was little and I wanted to escape I'd build places in my head. Tree houses, forts, bunkers, it eventually became a real thing."

She tilts her head at him her voice is softly conspiring as she asks. "If you were to build something for me what would it be?" And he finds himself admiring the way the shadow and light play on her face for the fortieth time that night.

He gives her a teasing smirk. "Porch swing, maybe it'd get you out into the world a bit."

"I'm not a hermit!" She retorted utterly miffed.

"I have seen your routine Jemma." He tacks on leaning up into her space.

"I'm merely focused"

"Is that what you call it?"

"Yes well you're anal retentive so there." She returns.

"I am organized for your safety. You wound me." He falls back like she punched him.

"No, I don't you like me and yes you are so anal I know you have at least a dozen of that tie. Yesterday you spilled mustard on it. The dodgy bad for you neon yellow stuff and then you'd changed it within ten minutes. Same color same pattern likely same thread count." She points to the undone tie looped around his neck.

-/-/-

Long into the night they talk and he knows fifty to sixty useless facts about Jemma her pet peeves, passions, fears, favorite brand of beer, what she does when she can't sleep they play countless games of scrabble using foreign words and scientific terms.

"That is not a word. I call bollocks." She said looking at his word meaning "Devotion"

"It's Swahili."

"Let me use the American term Bullshit!" She quipped.

"Look it up then Lady Jemma."- He said smirking at her from the floor next to the coffee table. She sits opposite him in lotus position.

She types it in fighting a yawn. "Fuck it, I forfeit." Okay so he apparently has thing for pretty girls using foul language.

"Shall we call it a night?"

"Are you saving face Jemma?" He teased.

"Yes, but I truly am done in."

"Alright I'll do my sweep while you get ready for bed."

-/-/-

He's sweeping the hall a final time using a cinnamon scented candle for light when she catches his eye through the half open door. She's just about to slip a faded tee shirt over her head and he shouldn't look but he can't not look. The pale expanse of her bare back has the breath backing up in his lungs. She catches his eye in the mirror as the shirt hides the skin he's dying to touch. She doesn't look offended just a little turned on and curious.

"I have a question." She said pinning him in place by looking back at him in the mirror.

"Shoot…"

She turns and walks toward him. In a rugby shirt the lettering worn off and frog covered pajama pants. She stands framed in the door way. No more than two steps from him by his estimation. The bits of hair escaping her bun fall into her eyes and on the nape of her neck as she tilts her head at him speculation. There's something calculating in the narrowing of her eyes it's just this side of seductive.

He's not buying this ingénue thing, she knows exactly what she does to him and the power she holds over him and she enjoys it with zeal. "Do you watch Skye and I in the same manner? Do you see us through the same eyes or in a separate light al together?"

He doesn't reply just takes those two small yet significant steps. He dips down just as she goes up on to her to toes their lips touch briefly a barely there open mouthed brush of the lips. It is entirely too chaste…wait the lights are on… he steps away from her because the urge to stay right there and ruin his whole life by drowning in what they call an asset is incredibly and destructively strong.

She leans forward wordlessly to blow out the candle he had forgotten he was holding.

"I should check in!" He says quickly back tracking down the hall.

"Grant!" She calls out. When he turns back to her she's smiling almost triumphantly. "Look as much as you like and feel free to use that intent little stare. I find I've grown to fancy it. " He stands there a little dumbstruck by her blatant confidence in his attraction. "Oh do take the couch. It makes out into a bed. It's much too late to be driving in such poor conditions. Good night."

"Night Jemma." And her door closes.

Okay he may be a little bit in love with her and that presents a slight problem.

AN: ok so I own nothing, I took Jemma's scientific sounding bits from grey's anatomy I don't own the idea or theory much less know if it's real. I own nothing marvel related. The song Jemma was humming was Running by James Bay. I hope you guys liked it. More to come! Leave comments or reviews should you like too they feed my muse. Thanks again!-MM


	4. Chapter 4

When she awakes and wonders into the kitchen for her daily dose of caffeine she's somehow very surprised he's still there sleep sprawled shirtless and shoeless on the couch still wearing his dress pants.

His gun lay on her coffee table littered with abandoned scrabble tiles. It looks like it belongs there.

He shivers and ever the caregiver she steps forward to cover him. He springs to life catching her wrist in a firm unforgiving grip. His eyes seem temporarily wild and lost before he comes back to himself.

The wildness turns to softness and he loosens his grip but doesn't let go. He kissed the pulse point and then stroked his thumb across it. "I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" he moved up slightly to kiss her palm.

"No." She said softly unwilling to break the fragile moment. His eyes stay on hers deep unreadable brown. "I'm fine Grant truly."

"Sometimes I can get a little sucked into my dreams." He explains in an abashed tone.

"It's alright really. Would you care for some coffee?" She slips begrudgingly from his grasp.

He throws on his shirt and buttons it as he speaks. Jemma has never been sadder to see a man's abs disappear in her whole life. "Sure sounds great! I'm going to go check the traffic reports and call in."

She simply nods heading for the coffee pot.

The air between them so comfortable last night is now unbearably and painfully awkward. Really all she bloody wants to do is kiss him again.

-/-/-

He spends all of his off rotation doing anything to avoid thinking of her in any way. He fails miserably. Everything reminds him of her or something they'd talked about. He knows he's starting to lose it when he buys a fucking Ring Pop at the gas station simply because they are her favorite American candy.

His first day back on rotation she opens the door with a bright smile that hits him like a punch to the solar plexus. "Oh you changed ties!"

"Don't worry I have twelve of these too." He quips.

"Was that self-deprecation Grant?" She asked with an arched brow as she stifled a laugh.

"A little, mostly I wanted to see your face when you're proven wrong." Why is he flirting with her? He knows better he tells himself as a small voice in his head sounding irritatingly like Skye says. "Because it will lead to kissing and you so wanna know what happens after kissing.

He mentally gives his inner Skye an eye roll.

When she turns to grab her coat and he sees her bare back. The long sleeved shirt has a huge circle cut out in it. "Are you trying to make me touch you Jemma?"

"What if I am?" She said and walked before him slipping on her coat.

He shoves his hands into his pockets before he does touch her their surroundings be damned. As he steps on to the elevator Bobbi gives him an inquisitive glance he nods good morning not trusting his voice.

His fingers brush on something filmy and plastic like. Damn it the Ring Pop is in his pocket.

Jemma pushes the button and turns toward Bobbi. "So Bob dress designers, should I go with Marchesa or Jenny Packam?"

"We both know you heart eyes some McQueen."

"Yes but Middleton is wearing all McQueen these days. I can't outshine the future bloody queen." She muttered darkly.

"And she definitely would." He says… wait that wasn't to himself judging by Hunter's face. Fuck!

There's definitely an awkward silence and then Jemma blushes as thankfully they reach the ground floor.

-/-.-

Once at Skye's place she drops down on the divan in the dressing room. "What did you do Jem?" Bobbi accuses as she comes in. "Hi Skye. Nat," she greets the other women.

"I didn't do anything! Close the door." She justifies and leans into the cushy couch as Morse closed the door before rounding on her again.

"You did something! He was flirting with you."

"Who? I'm lost…" Natasha said slouched in a chair near Skye who is trying on a red asymmetrical dress.

"Wait he flirted…. Eww no to this one…" Skye said turning in the mirror.

"He was not… it was an offhand comment." Jemma protested.

"He said you could outshine a princess Jemma."

Skye laughed out right. "He has less game than Leo."

"Again who in the hell is he?" Roman off reiterates.

"Ward." Bobbi explains.

"What?! She's right you did something."

"I'm not even sure the supposed something is a something. I mean it could be a nothing or an all in my mind that happens to me a lot." She rambles.

"Jem Jam you have the I did it with Carson Tolliver in the stacks face going. What happened?" Skye moved to sit next to her in the discarded dress.

"Bobbi has to promise no screaming or harming first."

"No spit it out already." Bobbi pushed faced deadly serious.

"He kissed me…I…we kissed." She confessed against her better judgment.

Natasha laughed uproariously as Bobbi gaped in shock. "Tell me everything well not everything because ewww Ward but Leo's gone so I need to live vicariously through you." Skye said excitedly it made Jemma feel slightly better about her faux pas.

"I'm going to kill him!" Bobbi said heading for the door.

"No Bob, I wanted him to kiss me. It's okay, I like him and I really like the way he looks at me." She hurriedly said.

"He can't be with you Jemma and it's sad because he's wanted you for as long as he's known you but being with you is a violation of his protectorate agreement. It's a conflict of interest and dangerous to your safety." Natasha says once her laughter died off looking at her with uncommonly kind eyes.

Skye brushed Romanoff off. "How was it?" Skye asked.

"It was really nice. Sweet, gentle even…and way too short bloody fucking lights came back on and spooked him right off." She sighed. "I feel as if I've cocked the whole thing up. Ok so I just back off. Dress me Skye before I give in to the urge to cry." She said and allows Skye to pull her to her feet and toward the rack off dresses intended for a state dinner honoring one of the republics.

-/-/-

She leaves the white house with a dress for the state dinner she's attending with her dad. She lays the garment bag on the back of the couch. She watches Grant do his sweep of her apartment before taking his post outside the door.

"I'm sorry if I made today difficult for you. We can just forget last weekend or the fact that we kissed all together." She said kicking the door closed.

"Who says that's what I want?" He stopped searching to look at her for a moment.

"Little things like common sense and self-preservation?" She leaned into the door and eyed him advancing on her.

"I've never had use for either." He bent and kissed her.

It starts like the first one then evolves into a whole other thing. It's suddenly heated and harsh. It feels desperate and so impassioned she can hardly draw air. He tastes like cinnamon and something else entirely.

He pressed her into the door and kissed her until her lungs were on fire. When she tugs his hair to tilt his head back she wants to know what the skin of his neck tastes like.

Sadly, that seems to snap him out of it. He moves her bodily yet very carefully away from the door as though she is a bomb set to explode in his face. She lets him pass and leave as she tried to breathe and force the warming tingles from her body and off her properly kissed lips.

There's a knock and she opens the door and he hands her a green apple Ring Pop her favorite. "I thought of you." He says with a little shrug

And for some utterly incomprehensible reason she has to force back the need to cry. "Thank you."

She closed the door.

-/-/-

Over the next few weeks Ward's presence on her protection detail is rare to nonexistent. She has no way to contact him so she tries to let it go because he obviously wants to leave their tiny dalliance behind them and she's not a woman who begs.

When she sees him at the White House back at his post guarding Skye. Her heart speeds up of its own accord. His eyes glide over her for half a second and move away again but she can feel the heat his eyes leave behind once again. She wonders idly if it shows in the blush of her skin.

They are to have cocktails and canapés on the residential floor before they move on to the dinner. Skye comes and sits on the arm of the chair she's perched on they're both wearing the same designer Paolo Sebastian.

She wears the long sleeved lacy number that is so sheer at first glance she looks naked underneath it. "You look lovely Skye."

"Too many bloody buttons if you ask me." Fitz says as he wonders over to them.

"Shhh my dad is ten feet from you Leo!" She complained "And thank you Jem. How are things with Mr. Broody Pants?"

"He works for you again, I got the message." She said glumly.

"Simmons! I have an idea." Fitz says distracting her.

"One of these days we'll end up rich or dead off one of your ideas." Jemma quips trying to muster up a smile for her partner.

"Wait! Who is broody pants? Fitz asked. Skye whispers the answer in his ear "Bloody hell Simmons of all the-"

"Your idea honey?" Skye redirects him with a gentle smile and he rubs a hand down her back.

"This will be discussed later."

-/-/-

He can feel her presence like a charge in the air before he sees her. She's wearing a short lacy ivory colored dress accented in dark blue ribbon criss crossing her torso. It's short at least by Jemma's standards it has barely noticeable blue straps so that the neckline highlights one of his favorite things the delicate line of her shoulders.

If he didn't know better he'd think she was trying to push his buttons with the dress and sexy eye makeup. The sapphire blue "Fuck me." Heels let him know she was definitely trying to catch his eye.

"Look somewhere anywhere else." Romanoff advised. "She likes you don't lead her on by looking at her like you're going to do something you don't have the balls for in the first place champ."

"Thanks Nat." he whispered sharply.

"Any time there stud." She retorts.

-/-/-

Half way through dinner she gets up to go to the restroom. His feet follow her like they have their own mind. Hunter hangs back thankfully.

Part way down the hall she whirls on him. All narrow eyes and angry pouts and damned if he's not turned on in five seconds flat. "What do you want from me Grant?" She hissed "You kissed me not once but twice and you bailed! So what is it that you want me to do?"

"Why do you have to dress like that?" He complained gesturing vaguely at her attire.

"Like what? A woman instead of school marm?" She snaps at him.

"No! Like you're trying to tempt me."

She raised her chin in challenge and smiled like a cat that ate the canary. "Do you ever just do something because you want to Grant? Because it feels good or are you always the dutiful rule follower huh?"

And that's it his control snaps like old tree branches in a strong wind. He can practically hear it.

"Did you really have to go to the bathroom or was that an excuse?" He says tightly.

"Excuse to get up why?" He takes her elbow and leads her down a random hall and opens a door.

"Be quiet. No matter what be quiet." He commands before pushing her into the closet and looking both directions before following her in.

"What're we doing?" She said sounding thrilled if he's not mistaken in her tone.

"What I fucking want." He growls out kissing her deeply. He yanks out his ear piece even though he'd turned it off as an added measure but he doesn't stop kissing her just softens it when she moans quietly into his mouth.

She unbuttons his jacket and is working on his belt buckle as he walks her back first into a corner of the supply closet. "Too many clothes…" she mutters.

"Next time…slower more naked." He promises kissing away from her mouth down to her pulse point. It jumps erratically at the scrape of his teeth. She gets his belt and pants undone as he's blindly tearing down her pantyhose.

They make a distinct ripping sound."Fuck."

"I don't care Grant." She said breathlessly as she sucked a bruise into his neck as she was shoving his jacket off.

He hikes up the skirt of her frilly dress. "I swear you're trying to make me lose my fucking mind."

"You like it?" She asked. He tests her body with his fingers first he doesn't want to hurt her. He feels slightly victorious as with each pass into her body his hand comes away wetter. It's nice to know he has the same maddening effect on her.

"Losing my mind or the dress." He asks and never gets answer because she's not thinking only feeling. He loves that. Her head kicks back as he strokes upward. She moans rather loudly as he body takes over to the baser of instincts. "Shhh, I've got you." He whispers before leaning into kiss her. He removes his hand and brackets her legs around him. He sinks in slowly. He slides arm under her ass to lever her up some and force her down onto him more firmly. She makes a little choked sound that claws at his insides with a blinding heat.

He gets lost in her. The softness of her skin, the heat of her body, the tempo of her breathing the taste of her kiss. The deep slow rhythm they create. He loses track of time focused solely on the moment drawing everything he can from this because it will be all he gets. He knows that. They fit together like they belong together and that scares him for multiple reasons. He watches her face as her orgasm begins and crests. It's like watching the sunrise…beautiful calm and sure to never look the same way twice.

"Open your eyes Jemma." He commands. "You will never know how long I've wanted you. You are all I thought you'd be." She looks like she might cry. He really just wanted her to know she was worth every risk and reckless thing he could ever do, that she had value to him. She kissed him and he feels surrounded by her in every way. "Let go." She whispers against his lips.

And he does.

Afterwards he's still holding her up and he knows they shouldn't linger but he needs these five seconds of calm first.

"HI, I've missed you." She says kissing his forehead down the line of his nose before landing on his lips.

"Hi Baby." He said. He was so completely sunk hell he was the Titanic. He'd never had anyone miss him he's not sure he can give it up. "We gotta move Jem. We get caught and I get court martialed by a very fancy court."

"Right!" She kissed him once twice a third time. . He gingerly pulled away from her body and slid her down his body sitting her gently on her still blue heeled feet. "Where are we?"

"Why? He asked buttoning his pants. He side long glanced at her straightening the frilly dress.

"You ripped my knickers or at least part of them I need to text Skye for more. I still have to sit through the entertainment." She brushed her hair in place. She reaches up to adjust his tie.

He hands her his phone once his tie is fixed. "Off east room, hallway third door."

She taps out the directions followed up by "Manscaping emergency bring panty hose."

"Manscaping?" Grant now fully redressed asked dropping a quick kiss on the shoulder He's reading over.

"Don't ask."

-/-/-

Skye knocks in their little code. Grant opens the door and she can see Skye wink before handing him the hose and disappearing.

He watches her change with curious eyes. "We just shagged in a coat closet in the White House and your side eyeing me for changing my knickers?" He just smiles momentarily.

"You go first I'll be right behind you go directly to the table. Stop for nothing. The place is secure but I trust nothing." He demands in his no nonsense business tone.

"Alright." She said she stopped to kiss his cheek. "See you."

"Always." He replied.

-/-/-

Of all the crazy shit he's done screwing Jemma Simmons has to be the craziest. He feels like all eyes are on him as he exits the tiny closet though no one is around. This must be how Jemma feels it's unsettling at best. He reaches the dining room and finds her next to her father. She's eating gelato in dainty bites and it takes every bit of his will power to not think of her lips on his moments ago.

He shoves his hands into his pockets to find her discarded hose. It really shouldn't turn him on but it does as his slacks suddenly get tighter.

"Think dead puppies or your grandmother naked or something mate because the head of the FBI is staring you down like all hell. John Garrett is not one for games my friend." Hunter advises knowingly.

He needs to end this now because he will not be able to keep his hands, eyes, mouth, and mind, his anything off Jemma fucking Simmons.

He thought once might satiate him. He was so incredibly wrong about that.

"We've all become compromised by our assets somehow it's alright." Hunter says.

"Not like this you haven't." He said darkly.

AN: I hope you like it Paolo Sebastian is real designer the dresses Jemma and Skye are wearing are on Tumblr. I do not own the design or idea for them. I just thought they were pretty. Anything white house related I get off Wikipedia. I own nothing at all. I stopped holding out on y'all if you liked it tell me! Thanks for all the support and feedback thus far!-MM


	5. Chapter 5

AN: I own nothing. Dirty stuff ahead. If you feel inclined tell me if you like it. Thanks for all the reviews and support thus far! Read on!-MM

He doesn't want to do this again, he doesn't want to stand before director Fury like a puppy who peed on the rug and ask for reassignment again but he will because he has to.

The long stretched out silence is making him nervous. So he speaks dumbly. "I'm emotionally compromised sir."

Fury's eye not hidden by a patch narrows. " Compromised how?"

He did not want to say this aloud. "I'm attracted to her and it colors certain situations in a precarious light."

"You mean you're in love with her." He corrects.

"I'd rather not comment."

"You're now on Vice President Hand's detail with the occasional transfer to Skye as needed. You should be safe there as Miss Coulson dislikes you and Hand is a lesbian. Dismissed." He replied in short order.

-/-/-

"What do you mean he requested a transfer?" Jemma said slowly.

"He said he was emotionally compromised and asked to be switched." Bobbi said.

Her disbelief and anger makes her voice rise to reedy levels. "Oh is that what he calls it!"

"Jem…" Bobbi tried to sound reasonable as the girl snatched up her keys. "You can't go anywhere alone you know that." She moved to block the door halfheartedly not really expecting Jemma to disobey.

"Stand back and fucking watch. I am not Skye I do not need the protection I let my father employ it due to his paranoia. I can fire you Bobbi. Don't make me do that, just step away from the door." She said clipped and calm as he knuckles turned white around her keys.

"Jem! Come on honey."

"Do not bloody do that." She yelled "Don't infantilize me you have no idea what is going on and I'm going to handle this alone. I will be back within the hour. I'm dropping by Skye's first." She stepped around Bobbi and went out the door.

She gets in her car and dials up Skye's number through the car's blue tooth. It rings twice. "Sup Jem Jam?"

"I need Grant's address can you pull a hack and retrieve it?" She asked her friend knowing that Skye's truest talents were a well-kept secret. Mostly because of Skye's high station in life.

"No hack required google is your friend Jemma… hang on….672 Maplewood Way. Apartment A7."

"Thank you I shall explain later. I need to get on with it."

"On with what?" Skye asked interest piqued.

"I don't bloody know Skye and if I talk about it with you I am going to cry. I don't want to cry. Not now."

"Alright be careful. Jemma?"

"Yes."

"I love you."

"Love you Skye."

/-/-

She walks briskly to his door and knocks quickly. When he answers the door in jeans and simple Henley tee shirt it takes her off task. He looks different this way. Softer more comfortable in his own skin.

"Jem-"His shock at seeing her barely registers her anger is burning to hot.

"I'm a compromise? I compromise you? Was I problematic before or after you fucked me?" She asked and looks shocked by the expletive before recovering enough to reply.

"Jemma you think I want to be away from you. Leave you in the hands of others?"

"I don't know! You're so hot and cold that I never know what is what…." She pitched her keys at him. They miss wildly flying over his shoulder and hitting the wall. "All I know is just once I want something for myself without taking Dad's politics into account."

"Jemma where are Bobbi and Lance?" He asked suddenly noting her solitary aloneness.

"At my flat I wished to confront you alone." She said plainly.

"Are you insane?" He yanked her into the room.

"No, just angry with you."

He smiles in spite of himself at her disgruntled expression. He closed the door and pushed her back against it gently. "So you're angry huh? Hit me with your best shot." He put his hands on either side of head effectively boxing her in. He eyes her, waiting. The stubborn jut of her chin and the fire of disappointment and anger rolling in her eyes.

"If you think your physical proximity will assuage my temper you egregiously mistaken." She said primly.

"I bet." Is his conversational reply.

"If you only intended for our dalliance to be a onetime thing you simply should have told me instead of quitting on me. What I do not and will never understand is your need to make me like you. Make me think I was something or some of significance to you."

He removes one hand from the door to cup her chin. He kissed her slowly and deliberately so that by the time he was done all the anger will have melted away. She kissed back with equal intensity. Even slow languid kissing became a battle of wills. The kiss spelled out every dirty intention they had for each other.

When they break for air she notes with some curiosity that her arms had become wrapped around his neck and her fingers threaded through the hair at the nape of his neck. She looked down because if she looked into his eyes she'd give in. "Doing this again? It solves nothing and only stands to leave me more befuddled than before." She said trying to keep her voice even as he moved on to skim his lips down her jaw line. He scrapes his teeth in a nipping motion into the side of her neck. The action sends little lightning bolts skittering across her skin. He follows the sting of the scrape with a quick soothing swipe of his tongue. When he sucks the tiny patch of skin into his mouth her knees nearly buckle. Of course he's holding on to her and continues on determined. Why did he have to target one of her erogenous zones right out of the gate? She can't think.

"Oh god…" She muttered as he moved lower and lower down her neck.

"Nope just Grant." He retorts and shoves him back with a laugh. "Trying to melt my resolve is cheating."

He kissed her soundly on the mouth again. "No, it's using everything in my arsenal. Every bit of charm I've got in order to get you naked and underneath me…or on top whichever you prefer." He works his hands under top and quickly rids her of it.

"Promise you tell me why you quit after?" She bargains.

"Yes…" He more or less grunts as he kisses along the curves of her cleavage.

"Bloody freaking metaphorical hell."

"What now Jem?" he said slightly frustrated yet bemused.

"I hadn't planned on being naked I'd have worn a more attractive brassiere."

He unlatches the bra giving her a wry laugh. "You think that's what I'm seeing now? Your practical bra?" He asked as he tossed aside her bra and went down on to his knees.

"I don't know what you see…" she said shakily as she balanced herself on his shoulders when the attention he shows her breasts with his hands and mouth has a warm sensation sliding down into her belly.

He unbuttons her jeans and kisses a line down her abs and rings her navel with the tip of his tongue. "I'll tell you what I see." He said stopping to take off her shoes before removing her pants.

He focuses on untying her sneakers as he speaks. "I see the depth of your loyalty in the way you sacrifice things for your father. I see your devotion to your friendships…you always see the best in Skye, her true best self and you would follow Fitz to the edge of the world. I know you're courageous and adventuresome. You'd have to be to be her with me like this, and I will never understand the way you look back at me but I'm glad for it. I see your startling intelligence; you question everything and always need to know the answer. The world needs more of that. Of course I see your blinding physical beauty and there isn't one single inch of you that I don't want to know better than anyone else. Your beauty might have been the first thing I noticed but now it's just very addicting icing on the cake. I see all of you Jemma. That's what I see. Free of her shoes he works her pants and under wear down and off.

His estimation of her character feels warm and heavy in her chest. She didn't know anyone who saw her that way until now.

He goes to work her over with his hand and she caught his hand. "No, Stand please." He does as she bade and she pulls his shirt off to kiss her way down his chest. "I've always wondered what you'd look like naked." She wondered aloud shocking the hell out of him.

She undid his belt and yanked his jeans down. Then her mouth is on him warm wet and pulling in a way that his knees going jelly like on him. He catches the wall with one hand and plays gently with her hair with the other. The fact that she uses twelve syllable words must make her tongue especially lithe because… "Goddamn Jem." He curses. There is just an edge of teeth… " Stop! Jem, you gotta stop."

She says all innocence smiling up at him. "Whatever for?"

"Are you trying to make it so I can never give you up?" He wondered quietly.

"Would it work?" She asks while he's pulling her to her feet.

"Maybe…" he kicks off his Jeans and directs her down a hall with her standing back to his front.

Having her in his bed is a bad idea. It's likely he will never sleep again but he wants her there. Lit in the midday light filtering through the half shuttered windows, underneath him saying his name lowly like some long forgotten oath. He wants it, wants her more than he's wanted anything in a long time.

He's going to have it no matter the costs. She moves slowly on the bed. Hazy from the way he'd been playing his lips across her neck and shoulders as they'd walked.

He looks at her spread across his perfectly made bed all flushed and beautiful. Rolling on a condom he joins her mantling himself over her before slipping home with a smooth thrust that has her gasping.

He sets a slow pace designed to make her scream and she will. He's nothing if not determined. She's locked around him arms and legs both each movement drives her slowly further up the bed. She lasts a long time sighing and groaning in time with his movements.

She pulls his hair to direct him into a messy kiss that goes on forever. Not that he minds. The kiss trips something in him to speed up and the rhythm becomes quicker and harder and... "Grant…" there's his name now for the scream. He hides his smile in her hair, "Yeah."

"Nothing…You clear my mind it's nice and feels...so…" he kisses her getting a little caught up in her blissful expression. He thinks he may love her and it makes him want to cry… which is confusing.

He slips his hand between them and finds her clit rubbing in a circular motion while rocking into her she comes apart with a high keening like scream. He feels momentarily proud seconds before he gives in. "Aghhh Jem…" he says against her lips as he spills into her.

He tries to roll off her. "Ah, stay with me. No running." She intoned kissing his chin. "You promised…"

He explains himself while playing with her hair and analyzing her ever micro expression. "You've utterly ruined me Jemma. I'm not sorry for it, I just… I came from a harsh family that used violence to make you malleable to their ways. Once I was old enough I decided to protect everyone I could. Except, I can't protect you Jemma, I can't protect you when you wash away the whole world. You aren't safe with me because you are all I can see, taste, hear, I mean you are literally the only thing I want to touch when I'm within five feet of you. I quit your detail because I can't do the job I love correctly and I love my job. If we get caught I'll have to give up the thing I love for the person, I just realized I loved five minutes ago. So I don't know what do and I need a bit to figure it out Jem." He confessed.

"I love you too. I can wait for you just know I love you too." She kissed him blotting out all thought.

When he rolls off her and pulls her into his side he looks at the tattoo inked on to her rib cage closer. It's a circular multi colored graph like thing with lines intersecting it all. It's not pretty by any stretch. "What is this? He asked. Tracing it with his fingertips.

"It's my mother's genome map. Every bit of her DNA is represented there. All she was physically at least."

"It's smart and thoughtful. It's very you Jem."

"Skye says it's ugly." She said sleepily.

He yawned. "Not all of life is pretty. We both know that." He lifts her up and tucks her under the covers before joining her in them.

"I should go, I only allowed for an hour to berate you." She said shifting so that her head was pillowed on his arm as he was curled up behind her.

He chuckled kissing her hair. "I'll take you back in a bit."

They fall quickly to sleep.

-/-/-

When he wakes he's alone. Her side of bed cool. "Jemma!" He calls out. He gets up without dressing and does a sweep of his apartment. He is completely alone. She wouldn't of left without him…She just wouldn't do that.

He gathers up his discarded clothing and dresses expediently. He grabs his phone and dials Bobbi. "Please have her, please have her, please have her, "he mutters lowly in a litany. When Bobbi answers. "Is she with you?" he spits out before can speak.

"Isn't she with you? I just checked her GPS her car is right outside your place."

He runs outside still barefoot into the snow, her car door is open and the car is still running. She had dropped her phone into the floorboard. The display shows she'd attempted to call Leo Fitz."

"Morse someone has her. She tried to call Fitz twenty minutes ago. Get a location on him too. She put up a struggle. There are drag marks headed south. Check the traffic cams. I'm headed to the white house now."

"On it!" Bobbi confirms.

He shuts off her car and closes the door. "Send CSI's to my place too." He commands getting into his own truck.

He heads for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue praying the whole way.


	6. Chapter 6

As he drives to his destination his mind races with stats and awful outcomes. How far her assailants could have gotten in in the 20-45 minutes they've had her. The purpose for having her, and who had her. It's all one huge jumbled mess tripping over itself in his head.

He wants to throw up.

He strides through security not bothering to stop he heads straight for the oval. He doesn't wait for permission to go in. He can hear screaming from here and heads in.

"This isn't my fault!" Bobbi yells to Hunter.

"They bloody fucking hell it ain't Bob! You let her leave!"

"She said she was going to fire me! She'd of done it too! That's how fucking scrambled Ward has her brains! Smartest woman on the planet made dumb by a man! So no, it's his fault! He needed to stay the fuck away from her!" She snarled back eyes wild and finger pointing in accusation.

"Right here…" Grant said.

She turns and says sarcastically. "Nice of you to show."

Skye strides in shouting with the first lady trailing her. "If you hadn't made me go to the scholastic brunch thing I'd of been able to stay with him and this never would have happened!"

"Then they would have you too! I told you not to date that doe eyed civilian!"

"Oh please let's not make it about the Australian dignitary's son Mom! His name is Thor for crying out loud! I just want to find my friends! I'm a fuck up with poor taste I get it!"

"Can someone tell me what you know?" Grant asked the nauseous feeling rising.

"Bloody shut the hell up mate! You fell asleep on the job. She dies it's on you!" Hunter says and Grant grabs his shirt intending to punch the man out.

"Shut up! All of you! They all turn and there stands President Coulson with Fury just behind him. "Take a breath everyone." He said calmer as he turned to Skye. "Sweetheart go find Ward some shoes. I won't start without you baby. I promise."

She comes back with black house slippers baring the presidential seal. As Grant slips on the shoes. Coulson addresses him. "You were last with Jemma correct?"

He crossed his arms trying to project strength and not his fear. "Yes Sir, I believe she likely left the apartment under her own power. I assume she received a text from Fitz and thought he required help and went out with the intention of providing it."

"You're no longer on Miss Simmons detail as you requested why was she at your apartment? Why are you working on assumptions and not facts?" Fury asked.

"We're in-"

"They're sleeping together." Skye cuts him off. "What? Like it was some well-kept secret? She went over with the aim to give him a piece of her mind and ended up with something else on her hands if I know Jemma. He's guessing and assuming because he didn't wake up when she left." Skye countered knowingly.

"You're blatant and thoughtless breach of protocol will be addressed at a later date. Now, back to what we know for sure. Can we approximate when Mr. Fitz and Miss Simmons were taken?" Coulson asked.

Fury boiled with well…fury but said nothing, No one else seems very surprised by the fact they're sleeping together besides the First Lady fighting back a shocked smirk.

"Based on… when I last saw her with my own eyes and the time it'd have taken her to get dressed to her very particular satisfaction, leave my apartment and dial Fitz's number I estimate her abduction having taken place exactly fifty five minutes and…thirty seconds ago," He finished glancing at his military timed watch.

"Wait you timed how long it takes her to get dressed? Creeper…" Skye muttered.

"It takes you twelve minutes and twenty six seconds not counting hair and makeup. It's part of my job Skye."

"What else do we know for sure?"

"I lost the van on the beltway, they could be anywhere but the van was stolen and the plates somehow scrambled from view." Bobbi said.

"I talked to Leo last night before bed. He was going to meet me for lunch but never showed at our diner. I usually wouldn't think anything of it but we haven't seen each other in months he wouldn't stand me up. Besides that Jemma and Leo share like a whole brain so whoever has her if it is for science stuff they have him too dad! I mean sir." She said in a rush.

"I'm taking this information to the situation room. Head up the residence or back to your posts until notified otherwise." President Coulson said. Eyes bouncing back and forth between Skye and Ward. "We will find them and get them back safely."

"You're fired." Fury said to Grant.

"No he's not we might need him." Coulson retorted.

He knows he should escort Skye upstairs but he can't move as the fear starts taking hold. He stands and stares at a portrait of Kennedy Coulson had moved in here. Skye plops down on the couch and Mrs. Coulson rarely an affectionate woman wraps her in her arms. "You're father gave his word that's as good as done…" She says finishing in whispery Chinese. Grant translates it in his head automatically. "Worry not my greatest treasure."

"Thank you. Momma." Skye whispers into her mother's inky black hair.

"No sweat, let's go upstairs. You too Ward."

-/-/-

He honestly thought he'd never be sitting in the president's living room with one of his past charges in silence as she stares him down. "What?" He barks in irritation slouching down.

Skye eyes him smirking. "You have a hickey."

"Where? Is Jemma territorial did she do that on purpose?"

Skye chokes back a laugh. "Left side just under your jaw. You not cool with lovers leaving behind little reminders Ward?"

"The whole service knows we're together now along with every staffer in place I don't suppose it matters anymore." He replies knowing they're trying to remain distracted.

"There is that…look I know we'll find them. We have too. So just… do you love her? Should I trust you with my person?" She asked from her own opposing love seat.

"Your what?" He replied in utter confusion.

Skye's eyes get big with shock. "Don't you watch TV? Look she's the person I'd bury dead bodies for, the person I'd commit felonies with and for…I know her secrets and she knows mine. She's had a thing for you, for at least a year. What I'm asking is are you worthy of one of maybe six people I truly value?" She finished leaned slightly forward.

"I want to be." He replied quietly.

Coulson comes a few seconds later. Followed by Melinda who comes to stand behind Skye. "Okay guys, Ground search and bulletins are getting us nowhere. There's no net chatter we have to wait for those people to make their play."

"Daddy you mean to tell me the fucking CIA can't find two people who were taken in broad daylight! Come on!" She snarls.

"Skye honey…" His tone is placating.

She gets to her feet. "Dad, I can find them all I need is my laptop and a connection and maybe a dark net handle. Fitz and I we created a hack where I can reactivate any phone from anywhere. I can turn Fitz phone on remotely and make it call me to give me a ping. Like when techie's fix your computer. I can do it."

"And if they've destroyed his phone?"

"It's a shot in the dark but it's the best you've got right now Phil. Let her try." Melinda said putting a hand on Skye's arm.

"We will be talking about the hacking and creating spy tech later. Take your stuff down to the sit room and tell Director Barton I've cleared you to help. Go with her Ward."

-/-/-

If Skye is flustered by all eyes being on her he can't tell she types quickly muttering to herself.

"Here we go… god I hope you charged your phone Leo." She punches a key and the program goes to work. She switches screens. "Dad's going to kill me for this." She said as she messaged her ex Miles who happened to be a well-known hacker they'd erased her every connection too.

He reads what is being projected on the bank of screens in front of the long cherry wood table that matched the rooms paneling.

S: I need your dark net handle.

M: What's in it for me?

S: Living.

He replies with a blank screen until Skye highlights it and it reveals as series of numbers and letters in a nonsensical pattern.

S: Thank you.

She opens a new window this one a blank black one. She types give me access to Jemma Simmons and I will pay any amount you name.

"You're right you're dead as a doornail." He whispers to her.

"Don't care… don't give a flying fuck." She retorts her tone cool.

"You can't negotiate with terrorist!" Vice president Hand says.

"It's a bluff unwind your thong VP." After a few minutes there is chatter. "There I got you some chatter."

-/-/-

After a bit and a bunch of people scrambling and Fitz phone proving unhelpful Skye gets a video emailed directly to her titled proof of life.

"I'm scared…" she admits lowly.

He reaches over her and clicks open.

Jemma and Fitz stand cuffed to a lab table. They are definitely battered and frightened. There is a purplish bruise blooming on her cheek and swelling her lip. He sees red. Fitz looks even worse and is cradling one of his arms to his chest. It's definitely broken.

"I am Jemma Simmons daughter of…."

"Wait freeze the video." Grant demands. "The guy holding the gun on Jemma. That tattoo down his arm I know it!"

"From where?" Garrett demands.

The Lim Tam family crest….but I wiped them all out… all but one girl. Lim Tam is a defunct faction of the triads."

"We need to play the rest of the video for a proper swipe at a location you good?" Skye asked.

"Yes." He says it calmly but he feels ominous dread Delia Lim Tam has nothing to lose and he has everything to lose. He has Jemma.

"Alexander Simmons English Ambassador to the Us it doesn't not matter which government meets the demands as long as they're met. Give them our formula for reaper bullets and they will free us. If their demands are not met within twelve hours I will…" She paused. "I will be raped every hour on the hour and one of Leo's bones will be broken until the demands are met."

"What are reaper bullets and what could they do with them." Grant asked trying to decide how dangerous it will be for Jemma to give in.

"They're bullets attuned to each person's energy field surrounding their bodies. They do not miss ever they paralyze your entire nervous system then set it on fire before overriding your heart rhythm killing you. It's a horrific death. They were created by accident while building the night night formula.

"How do you know that Skye?" Coulson asked gently having rejoined them.

"I date a scientist with a curious mind and a pure heart. He had nightmares for months about it. As far as I know they were destroyed and the formula is only in Jemma's head. We have to hurry Dad."

He nods resolutely. "We will."

She back traces the ping of the email but its bouncing worldwide. "Don't think so global Skye. They can't have gotten the far. Eliminate anything that's more than five 500 miles away. Lim Tam has to be small I only broke them a few years ago they can't have rebuilt that fast. They'd stay local abandon building warehouses and things like that." Ward said.

Everyone is staring at him. "Who gave you clearance to be here? You threatened her safety by crossing a line isn't that correct?" Colonel Talbot asked.

"I-"

"I cleared him Talbot…"Coulson said.

"There are too many pings and it's not like I can turn off the satellite from here." Skye said suddenly frantic after hitting a wall.

"I know someone who can." President Coulson said. "Get Stark and his Jarvis computer thing for me."

"Dad." Skye pled.

"Skye, I have broken all sorts of protocol to let you help. There is nothing more you can do. Let me do my job. Please."

-/-

He and Skye are promptly kicked out of the Sit Room but still they stand outside it and eavesdrop.

"And we've got them…warehouse out in the burbs." They hear Stark say.

They are talking extraction plans and then suddenly. "Sir I'd like permission to neutralize the assets. It's a horrible thing I admit but if they have been broken the things they know can pose a serious threat to national security and safety. We cannot potentially give a terrorist organization can't miss bullets to use against us." Steve Rogers head of the NSA says.

The English attaché in place of Ambassador Simmons gives a heated reply "They would never! They aren't assets they're people!"

"I get that they're your people Peggy I understand that but you can't prioritize two lives over the billions we will save by making sure they never get access to what is locked in Dr. Simmons head. They'd never break separately sure but what about in protection of each other?"

"What do they mean neutralize?" Skye asks.

"Rogers wants the Go ahead to kill them so that no one gets access to that weapon." He retorted darkly.

"Then why the fuck are you still standing here! Go get her! Go get Leo!"

He looks up at Skye feeling utterly tortured. "Would Jemma think her life is more important than anyone else?"

She screamed in frustration. "Oh for God's sake Ward! Don't be moral now! Just go rescue the damsel."

"Skye…"

"Look buddy your career is fucked. You got nothing to lose but her and I know you care, I know you love her maybe you instantly did I don't know. What I do know is if you let the fear that you might fail get to you? You will lose her and I'll lose them both so please stop waffling out here with me and go be what my dad says you are the best. Go get them the hell back and kill those sorry Lim Tam fuckers for me."

"Right…Right I got this." He says banging on the door that only opens to them from the inside. He doesn't have clearance to open it himself.

Fury stands in the doorway. "I can get them; I know I can before they're broken. I know how that lying Lim Tam bitch works I will exploit that and kill every one of them before they lay one finger on Jemma. Please Sir; just trust me one last time."

"Come in tell us your plan." He moves aside to allow Grant by. "Ward you're already all but fired so if you fuck this up I'll make it my personal mission to see that you can't get a job as a fucking mall cop in bum fuck Egypt is that clear?"

"Crystal Director."

AN: I own nothing at all I hope you're enjoying this. If you are please tell me the things you like and dislike even. I also I am always accepting prompts for any all fic or pairings on my tumblr. On tumblr I am Meghan84

Lastly thank you so much for the ongoing support of this and all my other works!-MM


	7. Chapter 7

The place Jemma and Fitz are being held is more dilapidated factory than warehouse but it has all open sight lines the only way to manage even a little bit of a sneak attack from above. He sits in the jump seat of the helo listening to the thwap thwap sounds of the blades keeping them aloft as they make a pass before landing on the roof.

He's not really tracking his thoughts. They vacillate between moments with Jemma. One is sticking his mind particularly her face lax in sleep hours before the warm unsurprisingly light weight of her body on top of his. The way her hair tickled his chin and her steady breathing had lulled him into a decidedly deep and ill-fated sleep.

She'd made him feel peaceful. He'd had very little of it in life.

"Game on Ward." Bobbi said. She was on one of the four teams of six being brought in this one under his command.

"I love her." He says mostly to himself.

"I know buddy but ya gotta back seat it for now and just get to her." President Coulson says in his ear and he remembers everything is being fed live back to the Sit Room.

He doesn't have time to feel embarrassment over the slip of tongue because boots are hitting the ground.

"Yes Sir," he says and jumps from the aircraft.

-/-/-

One by one his team drops down into a ventilation shaft. It's a tight fit for him but he knows exactly where they're headed. He knows which floor most likely holds Jemma and Fitz based on the parameters needed for their lab.

He can hear the other teams beginning to make a ruckus. He's never been more grateful for Romanoff's talent for diversions of the "I'm pretty look at me." variety in his whole life as the other teams have overwhelmed the other exits she is trying to distracted the tattooed man.

If his mandarin is not mistaken, that is one very dirty suggestion for where exactly he can shove the gun aimed in a wishy washy manner between Jemma and Fitz.

A couple of men advance on her.

"I count eight." Morse says from behind him.

"Let's do it!" "He kicks out the air vent and drops down. He drops soundlessly behind Delia Lim Tam.

"Here bitchy, Bitchy, Bitchy." Hunter calls to her from the other the other direction.

Her lavender dyed hair whips around her face.

She turns and glares advancing on him. "Uh Uh. She's mine." Grant warned as he grabbed her in a head lock intending to snap her neck but even all the chaos he caught sight of Jemma cowering into Fitz's chest and his heart seizes up.

Lim Tam takes his distraction to the advantage and tosses him over her back on to the lab table. Dangerously close to a Bunsen burner. It is very much lit.

She is raining down blows on him and he takes it for a bit just long enough for her to be over confident. He flings her off only to have her come back at him. He picks up aerosol can and sprays into the burner flames shoot out by a couple feet catching her arm. She shrieks in pain and tries to scurry off but Hunter cuffs her up most of the men are down so he makes it for Jemma until there's a tell-tell sound of gun cocking at the back of his head. "Don't move." A voice behind him says.

Everyone has their guns trained on the voice. They won't miss but neither will the voice at this range. "Just let them go." He bargained.

This voice is clipped decidedly not a Lim Tam thug. He clucks his tongue. "Oh no, I need them…"

Jemma suddenly somehow uncuffed strides forward holding a gun level with Grant's chest. He feels something akin to fear. "I deduced your plan the second I was taken Whitehall. I knew exactly what you wanted and that they were just a front. I could of killed you myself given enough time but I had Fitz to worry over so I played along like a good little solider just like Daddy taught me. You want Reapers? There is only one in this chamber but here's the catch… It's attuned to your specific field." She paused to let that sink in. When it seems to have little effect she continues on.

"You fire and you kill Grant. I fire and it goes straight through him like nothing more than pesky mosquito bite and you die a thousand deaths. You kill him and I swear on my every belief and any scientific law you will die. Let us go you get the bullet."

"How do I know you aren't lying?"

She shrugs. "You don't. I guess it just depends on how bad you want the science."

"They could kill me before I lower the weapon." He counters.

"Life's a game of chances I suppose your play Whitehall." She waits.

He lowers the weapon. "Hey Grant? Snowball Fight." He ducked on instinct remembering one of the many stories she'd told him when they'd been snowed in. she fires and hits Whitehall between the eyes. He crumples harmlessly to the floor. "Dendrotoxin, harmless…I lied." She says with a satisfied smirk. She holsters the gun in the back of her slacks.

He rushes toward her laughing a little manically. "Jem…where did you learn to-"

She looks up bashfully through her lashes. "Lie? I am the daughter of politician it's like birthright."

"I was going to say shoot."

"Oh Bobbi taught me as a precaution. I quite like it."

"Are you okay?" He asked kissing whatever unbruised part of her face he can find. "Did they…"

"No one raped me. They were all talk though my face smarts a bit. Please go see to Fitz he actually is hurt." He kissed her again "Ow lip…wait! That was public."

"We're caught and I don't care." He replied begrudgingly letting her go. To see to Fitz and the prisoners. "Stay in my sight lines." He orders as medics approach her and Fitz.

-/-/-/-

He hadn't left her willingly to say the least but he had to debrief he had no wiggle room with Fury. So he'd debriefed with half an ear than booked it to DC Memorial.

There is nothing quite as odd as getting off an elevator and there stands the President outside the exam cubicle. "Sir, I know you have to address my indiscretion with Jemma but I'd like to see her first please."

"The only course of action that is applicable here is termination. I'm sorry Ward."

"I'm not the only thing I ever wanted I got."

"And what's that?" Coulson asked thoughtfully cocking his head to the side.

"Someone to belong too. Now, if you'll excuse me…I gotta go. Respectfully sir."

"That nurse will just kick you out."

"I'll take my chances."

-/-/-/-

Grant steps into the cubicle soundlessly. Neither Jemma nor the doctor realizes he is present.

"Jemma, you do have a rather serious concussion but I don't believe the nausea is caused by it." The doctor advised while looking at her tablet.

"What then?"

"Your HCG levels place you at about five week's gestation. You're pregnant."

"The closet…we didn't…" Awed shock colors her words.

"Use a condom? Stranger things have happened Jem." He said with a bemused smile pulling at his lips.

Both the doctor and Jemma whirl on him. Jemma wobbles a little. He's by her side in three steps. "Boyfriend." He tosses toward the doctor. "Easy baby just… sit."

"You're bleeding Darling let me…"

"No Jem, be still it helps the dizziness." He forced her to sit.

"But you're hurt."

"It's a nick from landing on some glass. I'm fine."

She scowled seemingly deeply worried. "Why are you not alarmed that you…that I'm…"

"Because there are worse things to come away from sex with. Look at it this way, kid is going to be knock out handsome and incredibly likely scary smart."

"You're giving one of us too much credit. I can't decide which because my head is pounding like bad DJing in a London gay bar." She rubbed her temples.

"Been to one of those have you?" he teased.

"With Skye on a lark… Skye! Skye! I must find Fitz!" She jumped up then wobbled falling into his chest.

"Jemma let's get you home."

"I'm not leaving without him in my sights at all times."

"And I knew a clean get away was asking too much. Where might I find my girlfriend's platonic life partner?" He asked the doctor.

"Next exam. They're setting his arm."

-/-/-

The first few nights he's waking her every three hours to do a neuro exam or she is in too much pain to sleep.

He wants to give her something for it but she says. "I'm keeping it, I understand if you feel differently but I am keeping it I can't take anything." His heart stops a second in pure terror and in joy.

"Jemma, I didn't have good parents." He warns.

She brushes him off. "I didn't have a mother at all. We'll figure it out."

The first night she sleeps soundly without pain is a rather cool night. The room is rather well lit by the moon. She's laying half across him when she wakes him with solid knee to the groin.

"Jem…" He breathes half-awake through gritted teeth. He can see her there twisting in the sheets he tries to nudge her awake. In her fearful dream state she takes it as challenge and smacks him in the face with some serious force behind it. Damn, at least his girl's got fight in her at all times. "Jemma." She gets in another slap to his shoulder before he can pin her to the bed. "Jemma!" she still squirms. "Baby wake up!" He half shouts.

She comes too screaming. And Bobbi rushes in gun aloft. "I got it! She had a night terror."

"Fucking get off her!" Bobbi orders.

"They were everywhere… he was trying to hurt you all… he was tearing us all a part one by one." She says in a whispery terrified rush. Tears fall from the corners of her eyes to land on the pillow beneath her head.

"It wasn't real. You're here with me." He loosened his hold. "Get the light Bob."

"Oh I hit you love…"

"Just a love tap Jemma its fine."

"But I hurt you."

"No baby you didn't." the room now lit he moves off her. "We're in your bed. It's all fine."

She takes a few shaky breaths and curls into his side. "How long until this goes away. The dreams and the anxiety and the hell…fear. How long until it leaves me."

"Logically you know the answer baby." He kissed the top of her head. Morse eyes Jemma. The need to protect her clear in the other woman's gaze. "It takes as long as it takes. I'm not going anywhere, not in this lifetime." He answers.

"Why?"

"Why aren't I going anywhere? Or why does it take as long as it takes?"

"Why would you stay for a lifetime." She whispers.

"I guess I wasn't clear enough the first time and I can forgive you for missing it because I had pretty much blown your mind a part with sex!"

She swatted at him. "Grant Douglas Ward!" She chastised with a smile and a pretty blush.

"Wait! Don't slap me again…hear me out." He said laughing and dodging a slap to the abs. "I love you Jemma. That's why; I love you and not like anyone else can or will ever love you. I won't love you from a distance like your father or the people who work for him; it's going to be all up in your face every day kind of love." He confessed

"Even if there was no baby."

"With or without the kid. I loved you first." He assures her.

"Can we sleep with the lights on?"

"Sure thing Jem."

They stop sleeping with the lights on after two days. He still has to wake her from the dreams and he will comfort her back to sleep by rubbing her back and helping her keep her breathing even. Once or twice it ends in sex not that he minds, it hurts that he can't fix her though.

-/-

It turns out to be Fitz who helps her the most. When she wakes from napping on the couch in Skye's room having cried herself awake. He gets it all second hand from Morse as he had a job interview.

Fitz had held her as she cried. Telling over and over again it was all a trick of her mind and that they were safe, that he was okay and that it wasn't her fault.

Whitehall had been obsessed with her work. That was not her fault.

He'd told her he loved her and there was no need to cry.

When she'd confessed her tears could be pregnancy related. Bobbi said Fitz had smiled and said "You'll be wondrous Jemma. You'll be fine mother I know it." Then he'd gone on to ask her something work related like nothing had changed.

-/-/-

He is surprised by how well Jemma is handling the pregnancy. Granted right now it's mostly morning sickness but as it turns out there are certain things Jemma can't do, chemicals she can't come in contact with as it would in her words compromise the viability of the fetus.

She promptly stops calling it a fetus when they hear his heartbeat. To Grant it's a him, no way he makes girls. His sister Serena is more than enough as far female Ward's go.

"You can come closer you know I don't bite Darling." Jemma says quickly looking to him in the corner and back at the black and grey blobby looking image on the monitor. He had been hanging back trying to ignore the large wand they had shoved up…there.

"I'm good here." He said plainly.

"Non sense! Grant Ward come here." She demands.

He more or less shuffles forward as the doctor tells them "Everything seems in order." with a bright smile. Jemma takes his hand. "See the black fluttery dot?"

"Yeah. "

"That's the heart." The doctor turns the sound back on and the whooshing sound fills the room again. His chest feels pinchy when Jemma smiles at him bright as the sun. He can't tell if the pinch is pride or fear.

-/-/-

"Is something wrong Grant?" Jemma asks over dinner. "You've been remarkably quiet even for you ever sense the sonogram."

"I'm not sure I can do this. I'm not cut out for it." He confesses his newly developed darkest fear.

"Do what?" she asked measuredly.

"Be a good father."

The tender look that crosses her face is almost sad. "You're wrong. You will be a great father and no this didn't come at the best time but no time will ever be right to bring a life into the world."

"You don't get it Jem! You can't your parents love or loved you. I blew a part my entire world on a fucking chance and I am not stable enough for this I don't even have a job!" he accidently shouts at her.

"I'm a whim. I was a whim?!" her words are clipped and cold coming from hurt.

"No, Jemma that's not what I meant!" He said trying to back track unsure of how he'd found himself in this predicament.

"If you wish to reverse this arrangement tell me now before I'm too invested to let you leave without losing all manner of my dignity." She says precisely while stabbing violently at her potatoes.

He growled in frustration. "I fucking love you okay! I always have and I don't want to be anywhere else! What I meant was I took entirely too many very dangerous chances to be with you. I'm not responsible."

She starts laughing. "Why're you laughing this is not funny stop it"

"You fell in love and it made you stupid welcome to the human race love." She quips falling into gales of laughter.

"Do you really have to laugh so hard? You just snorted that's not attractive Jemma." He retorted half pouting.

"I love you… and yes…I do…okay, okay stopping."

"Thank you." He mutters as Jemma gets a hold of herself.

"Look Darling the fact that loving me just so happened to put a kink in your carefully laid plans it doesn't mean you won't be a wonderful father. It just means between two of us they might be a bit neurotic but very well loved. I know you fear becoming your father but it's not going to happen."

"You don't know that." He says darkly as he tries not to think of what he'd come from.

"Yes I do. Do you think for one second that dreadful man would risk all he's worked for? If it were him could he have given up everything for your mother the way you have for me? No. Everyone has heard the rumors Grant I know what you come from but you aren't that."

"You're so damn fearless. "He says softly as she rolls her eyes at him.

"Oh I'm scared too! I have no mother and a human being is going to exit my body in a few months' time with no one to walk me through it. I'm terrified too."

He smirked. "Stop picturing an exit sign over my crotch Grant."

"I wasn't… Ok I might have."

=/=

Grant takes the pity job given to him by Jemma's father. He does so out of sheer desperation. He needs a job; they're having a kid and as turns out the little twerp is going to be really fucking expensive. He had no idea.

No one else in DC will touch him so he spends a month in London with Jemma's Dad side eying him the entire time. He'd had to leave Jemma in DC at seven months pregnant they had deemed her to pregnant for travel.

He'd left in Skye's surprising stringent care.

When he opens the door to their place he's not sure what he'd expected but it wasn't Jemma crying profusely while sitting on the couch in…is that a Mumu? What the actual fuck.

"Baby are you okay?" he says tentatively walking around the couch as he'd forgotten he was surprising her. She jumps up really quite spry for someone so very baby laden. Her joy at seeing him has dried her tears for the moment. "You're here!" She hugs him tightly and the tears start again.

She'd missed him. They won't let her be a scientist anymore babies ruin science….She's all fat and has no more ankles. She really misses getting her roots done and Skye left her to bone Fitz.

He was not a prepared for this. The army did not teach "How to Deactivate Your Pregnant Girlfriend's Sudden Onset Crazy."

"I've missed you too. Let's just sit for a second." He pats her back tentatively as helps her back into her spot on the couch.

"Okay… I'm such a mess." She sniffles.

"No baby you aren't." he lies easily out of love for her. "They'll give you back all your chemical stuff and machinery once "Twerp." Is born okay? You aren't fat you're just housing a person. I have no idea what roots are and who needs Skye or Fitz I'm here." He finishes gesturing to himself.

"I told you to stop calling the child that name…" She gripes.

He retorts dryly as he took off his suit jacket and sat down beside her. "And I told we needed to find out the gender and you said no, so he or she is Twerp until otherwise identified."

She waddled back up onto her feet and cross the living room to the bathroom. "I need to pee… Be right back stay out of my Cheetos and if you turn off my Sex in the City Marathon I will cut you. With a kitchen knife Fitzy took away my scalpel."

"Can't imagine why." He muttered.

"Come again love?" She called from the bathroom having left the door open.

"I said she chooses Mr. Big." He covers.

She stops mid pee to glare at him. "She does not. Aiden is clearly the better choice."

He laughs. "This tells me a lot on how you view me Jem."

"Does she really choose Big? He's such a prat!" She said clearly irritated.

"I watched the entire last season on a flight to Africa. She comes back from Paris without the Russian to be with him." He replied watching her closely afraid she might topple off the pot.

"Wait! What Russian? I'm not that far!" She complains at him as she cleans up and redresses.

There's a Russian artist. He's an asshole you won't like him."

"You ruined it. Life ruining TV show spoiling asshat!" She snarled at him before returning to the couch to curl up beside him.

"Love you too baby." He kissed the crown of her head. "At least I didn't eat your Cheetos.

_/-/-

She had wanted to do most of her laboring at home and so she had but now she's squatted down in the bedroom leaning on the footboard. "UHHHHHHH." She groans.

"Jem I think it's time you head to the hospital." Skye advised. "Lamaze didn't teach delivery techniques."

"I suppose you're right." She looks to Grant. "Twerp is trying to jack hammer their way out of my uterus and I am sorely regretting shagging you in that bloody closet but can you please help me? I can't get out of this position." She looks completely frustrated a little sweaty but oddly pretty.

"I got you Jem."

He gets her off the floor and to the hospital.

Jemma being well Jemma doesn't want any pain meds to dull her mind. So au natural here they come. He stays very calm. He can unarm a bomb he can coach his… girlfriend through childbirth as soon as this is squared away he will change her title but first he needs to accomplish his mission.

Labor passes in whirlwind of screaming and pushing. Then he's there laying all kinds of nasty on Jemma's chest.

"Grant you okay love? Breathe darling."

He shakes his head. He thinks he might be crying. Harder than he has in ages. Jemma looks startled. "He's real…" is the only thing he can think to say. "Is he okay? Normal and all? Are you okay?" he asks in a rush."

"We're fine…" once he's all clean and the cord is cut a nurse forces him into Grant's arms. "No, I'm not trained for this…" he protest to no avail. The boy looks up at him curiously. "HI I'm Grant. I'm your Dad."

Jemma's laughing at him from the bed. "You just introduced yourself."

"Well it seemed like the thing to do."

"Bring my tiny parasite back please."

"Jem…"

"What? He knows his Mommy-slash host means it lovingly. He'll speak science and understand my terms of endearment."

"No. he's going to West Point." He argues back handing her the baby and dropping a kiss on her mouth.

"He needs a name before we decide his entire future." Jemma points out.

-/-/-/-

"Nicholas Leonidas Ward! If you're bum does not find its seat in the next five seconds!" Jemma fairly screeches across the plane at her two year old.

"Mummy it's not that serious. I'm hiding from the anemones." He says coming to her side shaggy dark hair in his brown eyes.

"Those are fish. You mean enemies." She corrects brushing his bangs out of his eyes.

"I mean Daddy." He replies as though she is dumb.

Jemma rolled her eyes and picked him up. "Be invisible…" she whispers playing along. It's likely the fastest way to save her sanity.

"Be indivisible." He parrots quietly.

"Invisible Nick."

He sighed in frustration. "Is what I said Mummy."

He sits stock still as Grant stands in the kitchen. "Nicky, it's a small plane…" he taunted playfully. "I will find you."

"Nooo..." he whispered and then put Jemma's lap blanket over his head. "Mummy, no giving hints." He orders.

"Never Nicky."

Jemma was a part time stay at home Mum. She mostly taught Nicky herself as he had well above normal intelligence for a two year old. The other half of the time she worked with Fitz. He and Skye lived in the UK as well.

They were only stateside for The White House Wedding.

As Grant comes around her seat Nicky snickers. "Hey Jem you seen Nicky? I'm starting thing he's hiding in the cargo hold." He said ignoring the snickers emanating from under the blanket

"Why, no darling I haven't."

The Pilot's light dings over their head signaling descent into DC. Grant sat down on the long seat beside her. He uncovered the boy's head. "Hey Nicky."

"Damn it!" Nicky said.

"Grant! What have I told you?" Jemma reprimanded knowing just where Nicky had gotten that word.

"Here let me buckle him up." he deflected.

-/-/-/-

He sat in the Rose Garden with his son cursing the bride up one side and down the other in his mind. She'd given Nicky Pixie Sticks before the ceremony as a result he was holding on to a tiny suited and bow tied tornado.

"Hi Mummy!" he shouts as Jemma takes her place as officiant of the wedding. Being best friend to both the bride and the groom presiding over the wedding had been the best way to include her.

"Hello Love, sit down…" Jemma calls back.

"But I wanna stand with you!"

"Nicholas Leonidas." Grant warned lowly.

"Daddy…" Nicky counters equally low.

Any other time Grant would find Nicky's independent streak amusing because as much as the boy is a hand full he wants to give Nicky all the freedom and love he'd never had. He picks him up and plunks him in the seat as the processional starts.

He holds Grant's left hand and tries taking his wedding band off. They'd gotten married when Nicky was two weeks old.

"This is stupid and dull." Nicky mused aloud before climbing into Grant's lap.

"Don't say stupid. You have a bigger vocabulary than that and gentlemen use their words precisely." Grant said as the boy looped his arms around Grant's neck and pressed his cheek to Grant's. "Daddy…"

"Shhh buddy. It's starting."

"But I have questions for you." He said urgently.

"Save them for Mommy. She has better answers."

He kisses Grant's cheek. The only time he is ever affection is when he's sleepy so Grant silently hopes the sugar is fading fast and sways slightly in his seat.

He thinks he might be asleep but no Nicky pops up when Jemma gets to the objections portion of the ceremony.

"Mommy I have a question!" He shouts

Grant just tosses his hands up mouthing "yours". Jemma looks between Leo and Skye apologetically.

Skye as well as the President are flat out laughing.

Fitz nods they have a rule no question of Nicky's goes unanswered because they know what it is to have their curiosity stifled.

"Yes darling?" Jemma asked.

"What's the name of the flowers in Skye's hair? They are pretty. Hi Skye you look very girly but pretty."

Skye turns to him. "I do look girly. Huh? They're roses."

"He wants the scientific terminology." Fitz says knowing his Godson all too well.

"Rosa Rubingosa is the Latin classification and they belong to Rosacea family." Fitz answered.

"Thank you!"

"Be really still the rest of the time and I'll give you more pixie sticks." Skye said.

"No, you won't!" Grant and Jemma say in unison.

"I'll take him to play with the monkey that was a wedding gift from the Prince of Dubai then." Fitz counters.

"Only if it's had its shots." Jemma interjects.

Grant just shakes his head and watches his boy kicking his feet and raptly listening to his mother's impassioned argument over rabies transference with Fitz.

Skye redirected them with ease years of practice showing in the action.

Grant knew they were sure to be the talk of the tabloids for interrupting what amounted to a royal wedding but it wouldn't be the first time they have made the tabloids. You fall in love with, knock up, and marry your assignment people take notice.

Not that He minds Jemma had changed his world. He loved her like no other.

He'd never say this aloud but he thanks God for Skye Coulson being so damned hard to deal with.

He catches Jemma's eye as she recites some poem he doesn't know. He winks at her and she gives him a brilliant smile in return.

Parts of her vows come back to him as Skye says hers.

"I have never felt more blessed than in the quiet moments I know you are next to me. In protection or in peace…you are always right next to me."

And there is nowhere else he'd rather be than next to Jemma Simmons for all time.

AN: That's all folks I own nothing but Nicky. He's named after Nikola Tesla and Leonidas one the Kings of Sparta known for his bravery in battle. If you liked it tell me and thanks so much for taking this journey with me. Thanks for all the likes, comments, kudos, follows, favorites, reblogs and reviews! This was fun! Thanks again-MM


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